The present invention relates to a new tool for use by artists, particularly those who paint on canvases stretched on stretcher bars.
The historic and time-honored way to steady a painter's hand for detail work is to use a mahl-stick. Mahl-sticks are 2' long sticks with a ball mounted atone end. The ball is pressed against a dry portion of the canvas and held in place with one hand, so that the painter's painting hand can rest on the stick and be steadied by the stick as detail work is done. Numerous problems accompany the use of mahl-sticks. They press dents into the canvas, and they require a dry spot or unpainted area to rest the ball of the mahl-stick. Moreover, both hands are required to paint, so that there is not a hand free to hold a pallet or other tools. Finally, since the mahl-stick is held by hand, it is still not prefectly steady.
Various efforts have been made over the years to replace mahl-sticks or provide other devices for artists to support their hands when doing close work, as exemplified by the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 289,700 to Parker discloses a mahl-stick having a roller mounted at one end to allow it to travel laterally on a track affixed to the top of the easel so that the position of the mahl-stick can be modified left to right.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,496,276 to Dolas discloses a mahl-stick having two ends which are urged together by an internal spring. Thus, the mahl-stick pinches the edges of the work surface, such as a drawing board, to hold it in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,568 to Tratt discloses a drafting device including abridging arm which mounts in grooves over a board and has a movable support for the artist's hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,856 to Cortimilia discloses a fairly elaborate device to be added to an easel so that a traditional mahl-stick can be pivotally mounted to one side and supported in a notch on the other side of the easel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,290 to Novello discloses a mahl-stick that can be extended or retracted and clamped to the sides of a canvas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,644 to Yates discloses a mahl-stick provided with a clamp to clamp one end of the stick to the side of the canvas, but the other end is still supported by the artist's hand.
None of the apparatuses described in the foregoing patents appears to be used in practice for one reason or another, perhaps because they are too expensive to manufacture, or they simply do not provide sufficient advantages over the traditional mahl-stick described above.
Also, artists often work with different size canvases over a period of time and the devices shown in the prior patents perhaps do not provide the versatility that artists would find desirable to permit them to use the product on a wide range of canvases. Moreover, for large canvases, it is desired that a hand-steadying device be capable of being used over the entire canvas, without undue effort being needed to re-position the supporting device with respect to the canvas.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a versatile tool to steady an artist's hand usable over a wide range of canvas sizes as well as to permit the painter to have support over practically the entire surface of each and every canvas to be worked on.